1. Field of the Invention
This invention has relation to visual indicators or markers which can be mounted on or attached to generally horizontally extending electric fence wires to clearly show the location of such fence wires to prevent or deter livestock, wild life or persons walking, running, or operating vehicles such as farm vehicles, all terrain vehicles, or snowmobilies from inadvertently running into the wires to knock them down.
2. Description of the Prior art
The method of marking such electric fence wires or barbed wires today include tying strips of cloth at intervals along the wires, or placing aluminum beverage cans on the wires to mark the location of the fence, It is time consuming to mount beverage cans along the wires, and both the cans and the tied cloth are subject to slipping along the wire until stopped by a fencepost. This results in large spans of wire between the posts being unmarked. This frequency results in the unmarked fence being knocked down.
Others have attempted to develop structures which will be effective to solve the problems solved by the present invention, but none have found substantial commercial success inasmuch as none are known to the present applicant and those in privity to him to be available today in the marketplace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,195, granted in May of 1981 to Higgins, discloses a marker for electric fence wire which includes a large thick block or plate 13 having a pair of parallel raised strips 20 and 21 defining a wire-pinching groove 19. Alternatively, a wire-pinching groove 14 is shown to be cut directly into the block or plate 13. A streamer is stapled to the top of the block, is wrapped around the block on the side opposite the wire-pinching grovoe, and extends through a large cylindrical opening through a lower portion of the block. This streamer seems to accomplish many of the purposes of the marker of the present invention; and it is suggested that the reason it has not found public acceptance that it is too bulky, complicated, and hence, too costly to provide an economically viable solution to the problem. Also, a collection of such markers will have appreciable bulk and appreciable weight and be difficult to carry and to install; and so will add a considerable and very undesirable weight load to the long spans of unsupported electric fence wire. This is particularly true in parts of the country where snow, ice and sleet loads can form on the relatively immobile blocks or plates 13.
The key to keeping down such snow, ice and sleet loads is movement of the wire and of markers placed along the wire. U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,244 was granted in July 1968 to Moll, and discloses a foreign material eliminator and aerial warning marker for electrically conductive wires. This precision made, relatively heavy, cumbersome structure does include, in FIG. 3, three or more vanes 15a, 15b and 15c which could be seen from some small distance. These vanes are firmly connected to a conducting wire such as wire 11 in such a manner that when snow or ice or sleet falls on the vanes, the wire conductor is twisted to allow the snow to fall from the vanes and also to clear it off of the conducting wire 11. Thsi invention was designed for marking and clearing overhead wires, not electric fence wires to restrain animals. It probably has not been adapted to use on electric fences for some of the same reasons that the teachings of the Higgins patent have not been universally accepted. These factors are weight, cost, bulk, etc.
The ancient U.S. Pat. No. 405,851 granted in June of 1889 to Schlyer, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,553 granted in December of 1952 to Wilson, show metal signals or discs adapted to be fastened to barbed wire fences by deforming part of the metal in the discs. Like the aluminum beverage cans now being used to attempt to accomplish the purposes of the invention, these discs are subject to being slid along the wires by the wind or by the rubbing of livestock against them. These structures are very difficult to see from any substantial distance, and their use is more effective on barbed wire fences where they cannot slide for much of a distance without coming in contact with one of the barbs. The low visibility factor keeps them from being widely accepted since there is no streamer such as seen in the patent to Higgins or such as seen in the structure of the present invention.
The ancient patent, U.S. Pat. No. 367,664 granted Aug. 2, 1887 to Riale, shows a metal strip to be installed on a barbed wire with a diagonally downwardly extending "thin hoop-iron" held in a vertical position to be visible by an anchor wire E which is tied or coiled around a lower parallel strand of fence. Obvisouly this structure will not be effective with electric fences because there is, typically, no second parallel wire running below the electric fence wire itself. If there was a second wire, there would be a severe drain or shorting of the electrical charge to ground, particularly in wet weather. Further, this structure has the disadvantages of the currently used aluminum beverage cans and the structures of the Schlyer and Wilson patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,337 discloses a warning device having a flat base and an integral strap extending from one edge of the base. The strap is looped around a strand of barbed wire and hangs loosely from below it. Evidently this structure would not be effective were it not for the closely spaced barbs to keep it from sliding quickly to one or the other of the fence post supporting the long reaches of electric fence wire.
A search was conducted on this invention and the foregoing patents were cited. Also cited was U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,038, granted in February of 1967 to Guthrie. It was cited merely to show the state of the art. It is not believed to be pertinent to this invention.
The inventor and those in privity with him are aware of no closer piror art than that discussed above and are aware of no prior art which anticipates the claims made herein.